10 Highly Educated Celebs in Bollywood

As long as they woo us with their performances on the silver screen, we do not really care about if Bollywood actors and actresses come with any acting degree or any degree, for that matter.

To the naked eye, they might be just all about the item numbers and action sequences - but some of our celebrities are amazingly well educated. Let’s take a look at the 10 highly educated Bollywood celebs.

Amitabh Bachchan - He might not be as young as the other celebs on this list, but he sure is as educated – maybe even more. Never having dreamt of becoming an actor during his youth, the star took his education very seriously.

After he completed his graduation from Sherwood College in Nainital, he went on to do a double major in Science and Arts from Kirori Mal College. And he has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Queensland University in Australia.

Preity Zinta - The Veer Zaara star is not all bubbles and sweetness – she is one of the highest educated actresses of Bollywood today. At school, she had always enjoyed her studies and received good grades. In fact, it was at school that she developed a passion for William Shakespeare’s poetry and plays.

This was the reason that she went to do her bachelors in English with honors from St. Bede’s College in Shimla. The actress also started a graduate program in psychology and then went on to do her master’s degree in criminal psychology, no less.

Siddharth - As a film celebrity, he is not just an actor, but a producer and a playback singer as well. And during his younger days, he was an all-rounder in college. He has a Bachelor of Commerce honors degree from Kirori Mal College under University of Delhi, and besides his studies in college he was part of the college theatre group ‘The Players’ and debating society.

Being part of the latter, he went on to participate in many world debating championships. He went to do his MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai – and was awarded CNBC Manager of the Year Award 1999 for his eloquent speaking skills.

Vidya Balan: Education before acting – Vidya Balan and her parents took this seriously. Dreaming of a film career since school after being inspired by Madhuri Dixit and Shabana Azmi – she entered showbiz at the age of 16 in the sitcom ‘Hum Paanch’.

But she was set on films, so declined Anurag Basu’s soap opera offer – went ahead and got herself a bachelor’s degree in sociology from St. Xavier’s College and a master’s degree too from University of Mumbai, before delving into films.

R Madhavan - Well educated, highly qualified and soft spoken – R Madhavan was made for a career much different from Bollywood. Senior to Imtiaz Ali and Tanushree Dutta while in D.B.M.S. English School, Jamshedpur – Madhavan went on to do his graduation in electronics and represented India as a cultural ambassador in Canada.

He was awarded Best NCC Cadet Maharashtra and got a chance to go to England for it. Owing to all these achievements – he was trained with the Royal Army, Navy and the Air Force. He then did courses in public speaking – which led him to more awards and opportunities afterwards. All these before he joined the film industry!

Ameesha Patel - The Gadar actress was also a brilliant student back in school. While studying at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, she was elected to be the head-girl for an academic year. She then headed to the US to study economics at the Tufts University at Medford in Massachusetts, where she won a gold medal for her papers.

This is not all – she even obtained a degree in biogenetic engineering from Boston University on the side. After graduation, she was offered a job offer in Morgan Stanley, but she refused as she headed back home for a career in Bollywood.

John Abraham: All pecs and biceps – John Abraham is both the brains and the brawns. After completing his schooling from Bombay Scottish School, he did his bachelor’s degree in economics from Jai Hind College and has an MBA degree from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

If he did not get a break into showbiz for his looks and great body, he would probably have ruled the profession of media planning – his profession before he took to modeling.

Soha Ali Khan - The Mumbai Meri Jaan actress is another highly educated Bollywood celeb. She had studied at The British School in New Delhi and went to Oxford to study geography. After that, she studied International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and earned a Masters Degree, no less. However, that is little known – as the actress is now well-entrenched in her Bollywood career.

Randeep Hooda - The Bombay Talkies actor also has his handful of degrees hidden behind his acting prowess and strong and silent charm in the industry. His parents had wanted him to be a doctor and get his attention away from sports – which he loved and excelled at in school.

After his schooling in DPS, R.K. Puram in Delhi, he went to Melbourne for higher studies and has both a bachelors and a masters’ degree in business management and human resource management. Coming back to India, he was working in marketing before he ventured into acting and modeling.

Sonu Sood - Who would have thought that the beefed up actor playing Dawood Ibrahim in Shootout At Wadala would have been an engineer in a parallel universe. But he sure does have the qualifications for it, if he ever wished to stop acting. The actor has an engineering degree in Electronics from Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering in Nagpur. However, he was fated for Bollywood – as Sood had dreamed of pursuing an acting career ever since he was a kid.

Beneath their starry smiles and blockbuster performances, these actors are armed with degrees and diplomas that assure them of a great career even after Bollywood. However, with their celeb status, we feel bad for their degrees hidden away in their closets that would mean so much more to some of us wishing for some other professions.